---
title: He had said horrid things to them and hit them with the palm of his… — Peter Pan · tree and pragmatics
description: He had said horrid things to them and hit them with the palm of his hand, because he could not hit with his fist, but they had only clung to him the more. Who acts: Smee, things. A sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of e
---

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# Peter Pan, Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP, sentence 47

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He had said horrid things to them and hit them with the palm of his hand, because he could not hit with his fist, but they had only clung to him the more.

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**Who acts:** Smee, things · **What happens:** say, hit, not hit, cling · **To what, where:** horrid things, things, Smee · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Chapter XIV. THE PIRATE SHIP. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Smee, things), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg16:15:47
# text = He had said horrid things to them and hit them with the palm of his hand, because he could not hit with his fist, but they had only clung to him the more.
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	horrid	horrid	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
10	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	9	obj	_	_
11	with	with	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
13	palm	palm	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	hand	hand	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	22	punct	_	_
18	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	22	mark	_	_
19	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	22	nsubj	_	_
20	could	could	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	22	aux	_	_
21	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	22	advmod	_	_
22	hit	hit	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	parataxis	_	_
23	with	with	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	25	nmod:poss	_	_
25	fist	fist	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	31	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	31	cc	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	nsubj	_	_
29	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	31	aux	_	_
30	only	only	ADV	RB	_	31	advmod	_	_
31	clung	cling	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	22	conj	_	_
32	to	to	ADP	IN	_	33	case	_	_
33	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	31	obl	_	_
34	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	35	det	_	_
35	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	31	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past · perfect | Smee | horrid things | things *= thing* |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent thing=Topic to they=Recipient |
| 2 | **hit** | past | Smee *not said here* | things *= thing* |  |  |  | with the palm of Smee's hand | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Patient with palm=Instrument |
| 3 | **not** **hit** | could | Smee |  |  |  |  | with Smee's fist | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP PP»: agent=Agent with fist=Instrument |
| 4 | **cling** | past · perfect | things *= thing* |  | Smee |  |  |  | vn cling-22.5 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to he=Co-Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Peter Pan» by J. M. Barrie, Project Gutenberg book 16 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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